Seems really ambitious and possibly good, but...

[☥ Docdra ☥]

Someone posted that they've already played and finished the game (Alpha?) last year, noting that there wasn't much content then. Soooo.........just how much content is actually there right now, how deep is the research tree, is there an end an ongoing story or a combination of both (like Minecraft)?

Games like this are almost an automatic buy for me, but with my backlog of games right now I've been more hesitant to pull the trigger on games lately. Still, this does look right up my alley.

[Ondrej Petrzilka]

There's about 8 hours of gameplay, less when you know the game very well.

You can win the game and finish the story. Story is told through intro (120s), outro (75s) and by captain during the gameplay. You start with no drillship, very soon you get small 1-segment drillship, which you extend.

Research tree has three levels, each level has few items. Researching each item unlocks few modules, items and upgrades.

Best wait for reviews or get feedback from people who played Alpha version, you can ask here or on our discord:
https://discord.gg/volcanoids

[☥ Docdra ☥]

Thanks for the response - a responsive dev is always another checkbox in the Should I buy column...

[Danjal]

Therein lies the risk/problem with these kind of games. There's often a lot of potential and too many don't manage to deliver throughout early access (for various reasons).

Having a realistic roadmap and the feedback of the community that backs up this roadmap is actually followed is going to be critical.

Or simply pay for what's there right now and take a chance that it may never become much more than that.

So far it looks like a good foundation though.

[ImHelping]

I'm keeping an eye on this given the current emphasis on "It's cool resources refresh" and "Shotguns are meant to kill robots" and tangible progress meaning progress.

Rather than the common trend of "We made a high tech survival/exploration game!... Which means the greatest concern of dev and fan alike is ensuring you are a weak starving hobo even when you can build giant submarines. flying bases, or even rockets to other worlds."

[Alcator]

Originally posted by ImHelping:

I'm keeping an eye on this given the current emphasis on "It's cool resources refresh" and "Shotguns are meant to kill robots" and tangible progress meaning progress.

Rather than the common trend of "We made a high tech survival/exploration game!... Which means the greatest concern of dev and fan alike is ensuring you are a weak starving hobo even when you can build giant submarines. flying bases, or even rockets to other worlds."

At no point during my first game did I ever feel weak. You actually start with a shotgun, 5 charges in the medkit, and 40 slugs for the shotgun, and by the time you expend all those slugs, you have a monster drillship with automatic turrets in all corners. There's something immensely satisfying in being away from your drillship and just hearing the "thud-thud-*break*" sound of your drillship fighting off attackers (the "thud-thud" being two shots, and the "break" being the enemy robot falling apart).

Also, Volcanoids doesn't have the annoying "grind" of Minecraft, where you are hitting a piece of rock 10 times before a single unit of a resource falls out, and you needing 20 units for building something; Here, a single swing yields 5 units, with most tools or constructions requires 1-2 units of each resource. And of course, a pack of 20 slugs for the shotgun costs 1 unit of resources, so with that 1 swing of your mining tool, you get enough for 100 slugs, and they get produced semi-automatically by your production stations.

Really, the mining part of this game is <1% of the time spent.

[☥ Docdra ☥]

I do admit that I feel most games have an issue with resource gathering (grind), but to different degrees. However I feel that the real issue is ramping up production of items as you move into the mid and end game phases.

Some games don't have options for automation, so it really does become a grind as you manually gather resources, process them, and craft items. Other games, like Minecraft, have limited automation - a lot of things, but not everything can be automated. Then very few games allow you to automate just about everything. The problem that regardless of which approach they take, most games share the same issue - resource gathering and item production rarely scales upwards correctly. This usually results in you spending more and more time 'grinding' the closer you get to the endgame content. Instead, you should be realizing the advantages of your increased tech base which should then free you up to do other things.

[Zyro]

Originally posted by Ondrej Petrzilka:

There's about 8 hours of gameplay, less when you know the game very well.

While I fear most people want way longer gameplay from a survival game, that would be great for me. I just don't have 100 hours or more to invest in a game...